greatest hits

i just discovered that the new season of the real housewives of nyc is on demand.  chris is at a show tonight and the boys are asleep and i am drinking a coooold local buzz and life is just about as good as it gets right now.

this morning i ran twelve miles (what felt like) entirely uphill.  it was so hard and it hurt so bad and i would've quit if i wasn't already committed to running a half marathon next weekend.  afterwards i cried a lot.  i got a massage this afternoon (a result of all the crying).  i ate mexican food for dinner.  my quads feel like they have been clubbed with a bat.  i can barely walk.  but my beer is cold and rhonyc is on, and that's that.  tomorrow is a new day.

let's catch up on greatest hits, shall we?

1) before chris and i snuck off to nashville, we celebrated spring break with the boys.

we went to the dallas museum of art (as did half of the city).

but that's ok becuase i love it so.

 2) i let the boys run wild at klyde warren park while i caught up with my honey-boo jessica who was in town from frigid chicago with her perfect child.  i am not kidding.  perfection, that layne.

 see?  she is delicious.

3) wook at wittle cwosby in this picture.  oh wait, it's baby chris.  this photo is proof that i was just crosby's host.  i was only the vessel that brought him into this world.  he is his daddy's boy/clone.

 4) and speaking of his daddy, chris turned, you guessed it, thirty-five on the 18th.  which means that for three weeks, i am his (much) younger wife.  he's a cradle-robber.

 5) few things make this man happier than meat, beer and pie.  so that's what we did to celebrate, ate at lockhart and emporium pies.  i am so glad you were born, christopher.

 6) ben potty-trained for two weeks before he got it down.  crosby has been "training" for months.   it just goes to show that every child is different.  crosby was sent to this earth to remind me that.

 well, he FINALLY pooped in the potty.  so as promised, we had a party at chuck e. cheese to celebrate.  he hasn't pooped in the potty since.  this child, y'all.

 7) i got roses on the 11th anniversary of when we started dating.  he got a hug and a high-five.  i am the lucky one.

looking forward to sleeping past six and piddling in the yard tomorrow.  wild and crazy, y'all.

how are you?  what are you looking forward to?  i would love to know.  it'll distract me from the pain in my legs.

love,

coco

greatest hits: nashville

well folks, nashville made me sick.

literally.

due to my face feeling like it was inflating the entirety of our trip, there was less late-night honky-tonking on this trip than we imagined.  this was the first vacation where we took daily afternoon naps and turned in early every night, and i'm not going to lie, it was pretty nice.

hotel beds do a body good.

y'all, nashville is rad.  here are some reflections on our trip:

*if you are in a hurry, don't visit nashville.  there, you wait.  at stop lights, in restaurants, at music venues, everywhere.  while sometimes aggravating for an impatient person like myself, it was always, hands down, worth the wait.

*southern soul food is my love language.  always has been, but now it's officially official.  (and it's always validating when the soul food establishment you visit has received a james beard award).

(my lunch: roast beef, mashed potatoes with jus, turnip greens, creamed corn, cornbread and banana pudding.

his lunch: roast beef, mac and cheese, turnip greens, fried green tomatoes, hot rolls and buttermilk pie).

*nashville is full of retail gems: small boutiques, artist communities, coffee shops, bookstores, quirky resale shops/record stores/galleries.  some were weird, but all were wonderful.  shopping local is important.

*the ryman is hands down my new favorite music venue.  it's an old church AND the original home of the grand ol' opry.  you sit in pews, y'all.  it's awesome.

*on a related note, i really thought it would feel weird drinking cold beer in a church pew.  it's amazing how fast it becomes not-weird.

*i love a good, stinky, happy hippie.  something appeals to me about the attitude, the hugs, the clothes, the patchouli.  however, i discovered on this trip that i am not the hugest fan of an entire auditorium full of hippies.  the smell, y'all, the smell.

*if you are wondering why i was in an auditorium full of twirling hippies ranging from ages 4-70, we went to see the bands widespread panic and ratdog (aka, bob weir from the grateful dead).
the people watching was phenomenal.

*a hotel can make or break a trip.  ours was charming and i was ready to move in.

they had me at hello color-coded books on shelves.

*there is a reason tourists and locals alike wait up to an hour to eat some pancakes.
we closed our eyes and dreamed at night of the sweet potato pancakes at the pancake pantry.
so we went twice.

*jack white is an artsy weirdo.  and an overall badass.

*and even though we already knew it in our heart of hearts, we confirmed that for a fact, johnny cash is a super badass.

*when i saw that the country music hall of fame had a special exhibit on reba mcintire, i was skeptical.  i was afraid it'd be a tad cheesy.
which it is at times, don't get me wrong, but as a person whose entire childhood had country music playing in the background, i was delighted at every turn.
i was reminded of my pawpaw, my dad, my childhood, and even my adulthood throughout the tour.  it was money well spent, in my opinion.

*sometimes the "coolest" parts of town are a lot more cool if you wear skinny jeans, suspenders, and sport a handlebar mustache.
since when are we not cool enough to enjoy a nice cup of coffee?  is it because of the mom jeans?

*i can always appreciate a delicious restaurant in a crap part of town.  it means people are investing in the area and that good things are to come.

nashville is so charming and it captured my heart, despite the constant sinus headache and lack of taylor swift sightings.

have you been?  what did you think?

where we ate/drank:

prince's hot chicken shack- burn your mouth off

tootsie's- cold beer, honky-tonk

the pancake pantry-twice, sweet potato pancakes, omg

arnold's- meat and three

the pharmacy- delicious burger

silo- the cocktails were the star

barista parlor- hipster haven

loveless cafe- oh the biscuits

mitchell's deli- that gorgeous banh mi pictured above

where we shopped:

pangea in hillsboro village

hatch show print

isle of printing

the hatchery in five points

kitschy shops on broadway

third man records

downtown franklin

where we stayed:

hotel indigo

leaving on a jet plane

leaving my kids always makes me a little weepy, but i'm not going to lie, i am so ready to be on adventure with my husband.

i'll catch you up next week!

love, 

coco

greatest hits

it's spring break and the weather is in the high seventies, and you really can't beat that combination.  so while i am behind the desk listening to pandora and billing customers, i will pretend that i am frolicking in a field like the ingalls girls in the intro to the little house on the prairie show.

 

i apologize for the tardiness of greatest hits, y'all.  life happens.

 

here's a peek:

1) the 100th day of school fell on a snow day this year, so we celebrated a little late.

2) we ran the trinity river levee race and it was great.  the weather was nice, the course was flat, we ran across a dallas landmark, and to top it off, i beat my last year's time by five minutes.  we followed the race with brunch at cafe brazil and a stroll through the bishop arts district.  all in all, a perfect day.

my cheer leaders

the speedy ones

...and a few minutes later...

one thing i've learned about the running culture, is that you are rewarded after a race with cold beer, even if it is 9:30 in the morning. 

monkey see, monkey do.

2) mardi gras happened and crosby made a king cake cinnamon roll at school.

3) he "hid" when it was naptime.

4) addy and i visited benny at lunch. 

looking forward to hanging with my boys tomorrow and hopefully hanging with jessica and layne.

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

 

love,

coco

 

p.s. in lieu of monday commute, here are a couple of videos of songs i've been sweating lately.

love it.

i couldn't get into this st. vincent song at first, but i know you will if you just dance along.  promise.  by the way, she is a dallas girl, lake highlands grad. 

holla.

 

 

shop talk

as many of you know, i opened my very own etsy shop just before christmas.  it has been on my to-do list for an embarrassingly long time, so to get it up and live was a huge feat in itself.  as it turns out, i can draw pictures of houses, however i cannot design a logo, take decent pictures of my drawings, or have any success in designing my shop without a lot of hand-holding.

my girl, robin, designed a logo and a banner (i had no idea what a banner was) for me to make me look like i have my shit together!

bless her soul.

soon after my shop went live, christmas happened and i haven't really touched it since.  just now, after a full recovery from the holidays, i am starting to freshen it up.  i have plans to add custom silhouettes to the shop, and even stationery somewhere down the line.

next up, a facebook page.  

etsy will only let me post five pictures of each item listed.  so i am dedicating this post to show you some of what i have done in the past few months.

*this one was given as a house-warming gift.

*this one was a christmas gift for a friend's co-worker.

*this one was drawn to hang in that very home.

*a woman hired me to draw a picture of her husband's childhood home for valentine's day.

the customer then sent me a picture of it all framed and pretty with the sweetest message.

*i was contacted by a woman in lubbock who wanted me to draw her old house in dallas where she and her husband started their family.

all drawings are pen and ink and 5X7, whimsical in style, $35.

will consult with custom orders.

to learn more, visit the shop here or click on the coco custom icon on the top left corner of this blog.

just tuck coco custom away in the back of your mind for the next time you need to give a thoughtful (and affordable) gift.

feel free to share this with others.

love to you, sweet friends.

coco